consumption


Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Acronyms, Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

consumption

the satisfaction obtained by CONSUMERS from the use of goods and services. Certain CONSUMER DURABLE products, like washing machines, are consumed over a longish period of time, while other products, like cakes, are consumed immediately after purchase. The DEMAND CURVE for a particular product reflects consumers’ satisfactions from consuming it. See WANTS, DEMAND.
Collins Dictionary of Economics, 4th ed. © C. Pass, B. Lowes, L. Davies 2005
References in classic literature ?
That article would well bear this rate of duty; and if it should tend to diminish the consumption of it, such an effect would be equally favorable to the agriculture, to the economy, to the morals, and to the health of the society.
The increase of alcoholic consumption is automatic.
It isn't that I've got the consumption, you know, like Joel Hartley.
I found that the youth spent a great part of each day in collecting wood for the family fire, and during the night I often took his tools, the use of which I quickly discovered, and brought home firing sufficient for the consumption of several days.
Every family that lived in it, some one was sure to get consumption. Nobody could tell why that was; there must be something about the house, or the way it was built--some folks said it was because the building had been begun in the dark of the moon.
His scheme levied a toll on the consumption by means of direct taxation and suppressed the whole machinery of indirect taxation.
But it would be much worse if you got some disease, consumption, say...and caught a chill, or something or other.
But the doctor says missis must go: he says she's been in a consumption these many months.
As the vessel carries out no cargo, her hold is filled with provisions for her own consumption. The owners, who officiate as caterers for the voyage, supply the larder with an abundance of dainties.
The Biscayan had an inscription under his feet which said, "Don Sancho de Azpeitia," which no doubt must have been his name; and at the feet of Rocinante was another that said, "Don Quixote." Rocinante was marvellously portrayed, so long and thin, so lank and lean, with so much backbone and so far gone in consumption, that he showed plainly with what judgment and propriety the name of Rocinante had been bestowed upon him.
But in little domestic difficulties, where the penalty of consumption, or death, is out of the question, this theory of Configuration sometimes comes in awkwardly; and I must confess that occasionally when one of my own Hexagonal Grandsons pleads as an excuse for his disobedience that a sudden change of the temperature has been too much for his Perimeter, and that I ought to lay the blame not on him but on his Configuration, which can only be strengthened by abundance of the choicest sweetmeats, I neither see my way logically to reject, nor practically to accept, his conclusions.
I could manufacture the air necessary for my consumption, but it is useless, because I go up to the surface of the water when I please.